Haunted Songfiction
by ObliqueFireAngel
Summary: Marik had believed that Mariku was gone until the moment that he returned and took control of Marik once more. Determined to destroy Mariku once and for al, Marik risks everything simply to rid himself of his mind's unwanted 'guest.' Set to Haunted by E


Disclaimer: If anyone asks, tell them that I don't own this. However, look uncertain so that they'll at least believe that there is a slight chance I do.  
  
A/N another songfiction from the odd OFA. I was listening to my Evanescence CD when this just came to me. It's a really weird song, but it works since Marik and Mariku are really weird people.  
  
Haunted  
  
Long lost words whisper slowly to me,  
  
Still can't find what keeps me here.  
  
When all this time,  
  
I've been so hollow inside.  
  
I know you're still there.  
  
-=-=  
  
He was having the dreams again. Dreams of the events of Battle City. Of how his other half had nearly destroyed him and his friends.  
  
Marik was getting to the point where he was afraid to sleep just because the spirit of the Millennium Rod would be there to torment him. To drag every memory past his face.  
  
Every time he dreamed of his past, Marik felt himself die a little more inside. Every time he remembered his confusion and fear from when he discovered his thoughts and actions hadn't really been his own for years.  
  
Marik stared into his hollow-eyed reflection in the mirror. "No wonder Bakura's been worried about me," Marik mused aloud. "I look terrible."  
  
-Yes, you do. –  
  
Marik's eyes widened at the darker version of his own voice that now resonated in his mind. "No, Yami Yugi banished you," Marik whispered hoarsely. "I must be imagining things."  
  
-Me, a figment of imagination?- Cruel laughter echoed between Marik's ears. –I assure you that it is not so.-  
  
Things then blurred and blanked out for Marik as he tumbled through a dark abyss and into his soul room.  
  
Mocking eyes now stared into the mirror, the boy's hair now spiky and messy. His half-lidded eyes surveyed his appearance.  
  
"You should've known that the darkness couldn't hold me forever, my light," he chastised in a condescending voice.  
  
Mariku then turned and strode from Marik Ishtar's room, through the Ishtar residence, and into the morning light of Domino City.  
  
-=-=  
  
Watching me,  
  
Wanting me,  
  
I can feel you pull me down.  
  
Fearing you,  
  
Loving you,  
  
I won't let you pull me down.  
  
-=-=  
  
Mariku slipped in the shadowy back-alleys of Domino City. The ocean-water smell was thick in the air as the spirit neared the docks. The sound of lapping water slapping the piers grew heavy in the air. So did the voices of the muttering workers that scurried about to do their taskmaster's bidding.  
  
Mariku, ultimately bored with the scene, sauntered down the sidewalk and down into another alley. That was when he saw her. She was alone, her blue eyes shining in the sunlight and her short brown hair swishing about her tan shoulders. Tea Gardner the Friendship Queen.  
  
"This is going to be to easy," Mariku muttered, pocketing the Millennium Rod.  
  
Sauntering up behind Tea, Marik, in one fluid movement, pulled her soundlessly into the alley. He whispered softly in her ear, giving her an important threat to relay to her dear friends. Once finished, Mariku pushed her into the light again and vanished into the shadows, unseen.  
  
Blue eyes wide, Tea glanced uneasily at the alley for a moment before turning and running down the sidewalk.  
  
~-~  
  
Marik was angry. It had been a long time since he'd been truly angry as he now was. His eyes sparked violently as he once more attacked the door that held him in his soul room and out of control of his body.  
  
In Marik's soul room, there were two other exits. One was a dark vortex in the far corner that Marik had never touched. He didn't like the looks of it, and it felt very foreign to him. The other exit was a window into Tea Gardner's mind. She had insisted on leaving it open so that Marik wouldn't feel alone. He knew better than to argue with her now because of his debate with her over the 'window.' Besides, he liked knowing that she trusted him enough to leave a connection open between them.  
  
Now, however, Marik decided to see what the vortex had to offer. 'It's supposed to be part of me, so I guess I should find out what it is,' he thought slowly.  
  
Reaching out to touch the surface of the vortex, Marik froze with his hand on it's outside. A pain like no other shot up his arm and permeated his body. Visions began to dance past his eyes.  
  
Marik began to scream.  
  
~-~  
  
Tea was halfway to the Game Shop, still reeling from her encounter with Mariku. He'd attempted to make her think he was Marik, but her link with the real Marik had alerted her to the lie.  
  
Screams filled her ears, and Tea almost fell down in shock. Marik was in pain, she could feel it as surely as she heard it.  
  
Speeding up, Tea changed directions and destinations.  
  
-=-=  
  
Hunting you,  
  
I can smell you- alive.  
  
Your heart pounding in my head.  
  
-=-=  
  
It was bombarding him, overwhelming him, dragging him deeper into the shadows. And he couldn't stop screaming in his pain.  
  
~-~  
  
Tea stealthily climbed through her window into her room and then tiptoed across the room and shut the door. Her parents were home and she did not want them to disturb her.  
  
Tea sat down in her favorite, plush armchair a few moments later and closed her eyes. Counting softly to herself, Tea fell into a deep meditation and opened her eyes to see herself inside her soul room. She then crossed the room and walked through the window into Marik's soul.  
  
Marik was crouched at the edge of a small, dark pool that swirled whirl- pool fashion. His right arm was stuck up to his elbow in the inky substance, his eyes clamped shut in pain, and he was soundlessly screaming now, his voice, even in the soul room, was to raw for sound to actually be produced. However, the most disturbing part of the scene for Tea was the fact that he was sinking slowly into the murk.  
  
Tea raced over and grabbed Marik's free arm and yanked as hard as she could. As Marik came free of the inky pool, a vision crossed Tea's mind of a man similar to Mariku and yet very different. He was the half-brother of the Pharaoh and angry. Angry at Yami for having what the man wanted. Then it passed.  
  
Marik had silenced the moment he'd been pulled free and he lay sprawled on the floor of the soul room, trying to catch his breath. Tea stood over him, shaking slightly from what she'd seen.  
  
"Tea," Marik rasped after a moment, "Tea, I know what Mariku really is. He isn't my Yami. He's something else."  
  
"Tell me later," Tea replied as she knelt next to him. "Just rest for now, ok?"  
  
Marik nodded after a moment and then closed his eyes. His face relaxed as he slipped into unconsciousness.  
  
~-~  
  
Mariku stood very still in the shadows, watching the Game Shop. The girl hadn't gone straight here as he'd thought she would. He was waiting for her to arrive, but she'd hadn't come during the entire 30 minutes he'd been waiting and watching.  
  
Mariku was getting frustrated with the whole thing. 'Maybe I should find a different plan,' he thought in annoyance.  
  
Tea appeared at the doorstep of the shop and closed her eyes as if mentally steeling herself for something. Opening her eyes, she walked through the door.  
  
'Or maybe this will work after all.'  
  
~-~  
  
"How do I know you aren't being controlled by Marik?" Yami finally asked as Tea finished telling him everything that had happened to her that day.  
  
"YAMI!" she shrieked in annoyance. "Don't you think I'd have an idiotic blank look in my eyes if he were controlling me."  
  
"I hate to say this, since it'll back Marik's story that he told Tea up, but she's got a point, Yami," Joey called from his post at the cash register.  
  
"If you won't help me, Yami, then let Yugi take control." Tea then growled "he listens to his friends."  
  
"Ouch, that one hurt'em," was heard from the check out counter.  
  
"Ok," Yami agreed in a soft voice that really did sound a little hurt. "I'll help out."  
  
"Thanks," Tea exclaimed in a bright voice. She then gave the spirit a big hug before waltzing out of the store.  
  
Yami stood there watching Tea as she left with an odd look on his face.  
  
Joey watched his friend a moment and then said, "you know, she used to have the biggest crush on you, Yami. But you didn't reciprocate her feelings and she knew it. So she got over you. And now that you finally feel the way she once did, she can only see you as a friend."  
  
"I know," Yami replied quietly. "I blew it. Besides, can't you tell who it is she likes now?"  
  
"Nope, and as long as he doesn't hurt her I won't mind."  
  
"I think you might."  
  
-=-=  
  
Watching me,  
  
Wanting me,  
  
I can feel you pull me down.  
  
Saving me,  
  
Raping me,  
  
Watching me.  
  
-=-=  
  
Tea smiled brightly as she walked out into the street, glancing around a bit nervously before speaking.  
  
"I guess it's a good thing I told Yugi and Yami about what Marik did," Tea's face wavered slightly as she walked down onto the sidewalk, continuing to talk quietly to herself. "I really wished he had been on our side." Tea shrugged. "I guess you never really know a person until they do things like this."  
  
Mariku grinned viciously and the climbed out of the shadows. He began to follow Tea, but stopped when a voice called, "Dami? Is it you?"  
  
Mariku stopped dead in his tracks and turned around, his eyes wide in shock. Yami stood behind him, a questioning look on his face.  
  
"Is it really you, Dami?" Yami's eyes were sad. "I remember you now. My half-brother. You tried to kill me and I ended up banishing your soul to the Shadow Realm. How did you latch onto Marik's soul? How did you free yourself?"  
  
~-~  
  
Marik listened to the conversation between Yami and Dami through his connection with Tea. He was only half paying attention to what they were saying, more concerned with whether or not Mariku, or Dami or whoever he was now, was to preoccupied to notice what Marik had planned.  
  
Closing his eyes, Marik held his hands just inches above the black pool, chanting slowly in the language of ancients. The pool began to shrink, inexorably deteriorating until it was no more.  
  
It had been all that was left of Dami from the Shadow Realm. A pool of strength that was full of bitterness and anger. It had once sensed a boy living in darkness who was sad and unhappy because of things he believed were unfairly forced upon him. Dami thought he'd found the perfect host and attached to the boy with the last of its strength. Yet, after all his hard work, Dami once more sat cold and alone, nothing more than a spirit trapped in the vast Shadow Realm.  
  
Marik collapsed on the floor of his soul room and just lay there for a few moments before getting up and walking through the now open door.  
  
~-~  
  
Yami sat for a few moments on the steps, remembering things that Dami had said before he'd originally been sent to the Shadow Realm.  
  
-You don't deserve the throne, I should be Pharaoh. You'll crack under the pressure and die by the hands of your servants or so-called friends if you can only somehow beat me now. I'll never willingly bow before a child who can only pretend that he rules Egypt.-  
  
Dami had said more than that, but it had all hurt. Dami had been Yami's favorite brother, but their father had named Yami his successor and not Dami. The younger brother had succeeded where the older had failed. Dami had given into his jealousy and hatred in the end and had only those feelings left when the Shadow Realm had let him take Marik.  
  
Yami sighed to himself. 'Dami made himself into such a waste,' he thought sadly.  
  
~-~  
  
Marik grinned and slung an arm around Tea's shoulder. "Come on, lunch is on me," he said.  
  
Tea grinned and replied, "ok, where to?"  
  
"Anywhere that serves Mexican."  
  
"Really, that great," Tea exclaimed. "My favorite restaurant is Luna De Noche* and its just a few blocks away."  
  
"Onward march, then," Marik said, starting off in the direction that Tea had indicated. Tea giggled and Marik grinned. The danger was finally gone. And perhaps time for other things to come.  
  
-=-=  
  
Watching me,  
  
Wanting me,  
  
I can feel you pull me down.  
  
Fearing you,  
  
Loving you,  
  
I won't let you pull me down.  
  
A/N What do you think? Please tell me, I must know. ^-^  
  
*Luna De Noche- it is the greatest Mexican food restaurant in the Dallas Metroplex. It's chili con queso is to die for. 


End file.
